Prison Farm

The Foundation for Social Concern has presented the Nevis Prison Farm with some useful Christmas gifts this week to keep the inmates occupied…20 gallons of paint, painting equipment and a number of puzzle books.

During a brief ceremony Wednesday at the Prison Farm, two members of the group, Ruth Powell and Sandra Liburd presented the gifts to the prison. Chief Prison Officer Shorn Edwards said the gifts were “right on time”.

“The paint will be used in the cells, hallway and there is a room we are setting up for educational purposes. These paints have reached right on time because we are doing some work on our storeroom and. these paints are greatly appreciated,” he said.

He noted that the are currently in the process of beginning upgrades to the facility by painting and laying tiles. He encouraged persons and businesses to partner with the prison in the rehabilitation of the inmates.

He expressed his gratitude to Mrs. Powell and Ms. Liburd “for going out there and asking the different companies to assist them so that they can assist in the upgrading of this facility.”

Member Sandra Liburd explained why the donations were made to the prison. “We visited the prison farm in August of 2017 and we spoke to some of the inmates and we looked around the prison and assumed it was all the same in terms of the actual decorations but in terms of where the prisoners were, the paint was peeling, and it needed some form of restoration,” she said.

Liburd said they saw the need in helping to fix the problem. “We believe within the actual organization that everyone is human and that they should be treated that way and the prison itself, the dormitories needed a little paint. Ruth and I, we went out and wrote some letters to some to the leading businesses (TDC and Horsford) on the island and asked for paint,” she said.

Powell added her group will be continuing to assist the prison farm and are currently trying to source computers to donate..

“I am very interested in the educational aspect. I am sure that the group would be interested in that and we would have to see what we can do with items such as that (computers). We would like to provide laptops . Computer programming is the future,,” she said “We want the prisoners to have a good chance of success in rehabilitation.”